PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear Sadharmik brothers and sisters,
Jai Jinendra!

JAINA is grateful to each one of you for supporting and encouraging us to serve the Jain community in a better way. In the last one year, JAINA is successfully working on many on-going as well as some new projects. We would like to share JAINA's accomplishments in the past year, from July 2019 to September 2020.

The fulfilment of vision of JAINA has been possible because of the leadership of each and every JAINA committee and its team. My personal gratitude on behalf of JAINA EC and JAINA BOD to all the committee leads and their team memebrs for doing a fantastic selfless services for the benefit of our community at large.

Sincerely,

Mahesh Wadher
JAINA President

JAINA Convention 2019: Around 3,450 people including 600 youths and young adults attended the 4-days JAINA Convention 2019 for celebrating Jain Religion in the 21st Century, from July 4-7, 2019 in Ontario Convention Center in California, USA.

Everyone celebrated Jainism through various programs like Jain spiritual discourses, multi-faith Keynotes, on-site Jain Temple, wellness sessions, Jain Academic Bowl, Jains Got Talent, Youth Activities, Young Jain Professionals, Jain Connect, Shatavdhan, Cultural Entertainment Program, and a Bollywood Show.

16 Bhavnas Book: Jain Digest Committee published articles on all the sixteen Bhavanas in the form of a book, where the Bhavanas are explained in English. Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai and Pramodaben Chitrabhanu have written the foreword for the book. The committee is thankful for their support. The book has received many positive feedbacks.

Diwali 2019 Celebration at Capitol Hill: In November 2019, JAINA co-sponsored the Diwali celebration event on Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Over 50 people from JAINA represented the Jain community in the USA, while over 400 members of the Indian American community from all over the United States attended the event.

Formation of New Committees: July 2019 to September 2020.

• Jain Connect: Consolidated JAINA's past matrimonial projects, committees of Jain Networking Forum (JNF), and Jain Milan into a new committee named ‘Jain Connect’ at the beginning this new term and appointed Piyush Gandhi of Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago, as a new Chairperson of Jain Connect.
• Population Survey Committee: The committee aims to survey enumerate the number of Jain families in North America. Paurav Vora of NJ has been appointed as the chairperson.
• JAINA Archives Committee: Keerti Shah of Chicago has been appointed to collect and preserve all the past records of JAINA.
• Overseas Relation Committee: The committee aims to look after global projects of JAINA. Currently, the committee is working on two projects, JAINA Trust India and Religious Site clean-up. Will talk more about it in upcoming slides. Dilip Shah has been appointed as the chairperson.
• JAINA Senior Group Committee : Initiative for Jain Seniors aims to create an environment for Jain Seniors to help them live with dignity, security, spirituality, health services, and other challenges. The Committee is led by Bharat Kothari ( Chicago ).
• Scouting committee: The committee aims to bring the best of both the JAIN principles and the Scouting experiences together to share the strengths for developing youth with confidence, character, and excellent attitudes.Harshid Shah Of Washington DC is heading this Committee.
• JAINA Endowments & Planned Giving Committee: The committee aims to give the tax-advantaged opportunities to the community in North America. Siddharth Jain of New York is heading this committee.
• Vegetarian Symbol Committee: Mr. Yogesh Bapna of CA was appointed to explore the possibility of having federal regulation of word 'vegetarian' or 'vegan' and equivalent symbols on packaged foods in the United States.
• Sadharmik Bhakti Committee: JAINA formed this committee under the leadership of Dr. Jayesh Shah of Los Angeles to help sadharmik families in India, who are experiencing unfortunate financial conditions made worse by COVID-19. The committee aims to raise as much funds as it can this year and is looking forward to your generous donation. Our goal is to raise $250,000 for this cause that will allow us to deliver Rs 5,000 to one thousand families for 4 months. Please support the committee to help the needy and the underprivileged by donating to Sadharmik Bhakti Fund.

In January 2020, JAINA Delegation, JAINA President, Mahesh Wadher, First V.P. Haresh Shah, and Past President Dilip Shah visited India for the events below.

On January 11th, JAINA in association with Jain Academy Education Research held the first Jain Academic Bowl (JAB) competition in India at Mumbai University which was very successful. Five teams of Jain students had participated in the competition.

On January 14, 2020, JAINA Delegation attended the opening of the 46th Medical camp of Shree Bidada Sarvodaya Trust, Kutch. JAINA donated $2,000 to Shree Bidada Sarvodaya Trust.

On January 18-19, 2020, JAINA co-sponsored the first International Jain Conference in Ahmedabad in collaboration with JITO’s Ahmedabad Chapter, World Jain Confederation, and Shrutratnakar Trust. The conference was attended by about 400 people from all over India UK, Dubai, and the US. JAINA inaugurated jainlexicon.com website – an encyclopaedic Jain dictionary.

In April 2020, JAINA adopted a new colorful JAINA logo that focuses on the teaching that all living beings are interdependent for existence. All the future communications from JAINA will carry this new logo.

COVID-19 Relief Fund & JAINA Cultural Show for Humanity: For Coronavirus Pandemic, JAINA’s World Community Services committee created a Coronavirus Relief Fund.

In May 2020, the mesmerizing Cultural Show ‘One World One Rhythm’ from JAINA Convention 2019 was broadcasted on TV Asia and other platforms with a motive to collect funds for COVID-19. The show was watched by over 351,000 viewers.

During the event, JAINA raised approximately $180,000 for humanitarian services in North America and India. JAINA is grateful to each and every one for their generous donations. The funds are used to provide hunger relief, medical aid, supplies of personal protective equipment, and educational technology devices to people affected in the USA, Canada, and India from Coronavirus Pandemic.

In May 2020, JAINA announced a JAINA Online University initiative that will offer recorded lectures on Jainism. Currently, the team is preparing to offer three courses consisting of 65 lectures and will start the 1st-course very soon.

1. Prakrit Language course of 25 lectures
2. Jain Philosophy course of 40 lectures
3. Tattvārth Sutra course of 30 lectures

We have 33 donors so far to sponsor one ( for $ 800.00 each) or more lectures and a generous donor Dr. Jasvant Modi has offered to match dollar for dollar up to $25,000 for any new sponsorship. I humbly request you to consider sponsoring this new educational initiative of JAINA. Share the sponsorship opportunity with your center members. For more information mail at jainauniversity@jaina.org.

Chromebooks Project: JAINA, with the help of the Anekant Community Center and Sarva Mangal Family Trust has decided to take the Chromebooks project on a national level through the member Jain Centers - supporting their respective local communities by donating Chromebooks to the neighborhood schools so that the underprivileged students can attend virtual classes the schools are offering.

JAINA Academic Liasion Committee led by Dr. Sulekh Jain.

Establishment of Jain Study Chairs in the USA Universities: With the remarkable support of community and the donors:

Jain Study growth in the past one year.
Programs that were established between July 2019 - September 2020.

• University of California Santa Barbara, Bhagwan Vimalnath Endowed Chair.
• Cal State University Long Beach, Bhagwan Suvidhinath Endowed Chair.
• San Diego State University, Bhagwan Sumatinath, Post Doc Fellowship.
• University of Toronto, Canada, Bhagwan Sheetalnath, Post- Doc Fellowship.
• UC Riverside, Shrimad Rajchandra Fellowships in Jain Studies (for 4 Ph.D. Students).
• Three Bhagwan Mahavir Full-year Scholarships for Study of Prakrit to go and study in India.
• Long Island University, Post, NY. Dr. Shailendra Palvia Endowed Jain Scholar Speaker Series.
• Willamette University, Salem, OR, Bhagwan Chandraprabhu Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jain Studies.
• UCLA, Bhagwan Abhinandan Lectureship in Jain Studies.

There are few other Chairs which will be soon signed.

JAINA Website: JAINA Technology committee developed a new user-friendly JAINA website and it is active now.

www.jaina.org

JAIN e-Digest: The committee published the June e-copy which has various interesting articles on Humanity, Mindfulness, Pandemic and Jain way of living, etc. The committee is working on October 2020 issue.

JAINA Scholarship Committee led by Atul Shah ( Chicago )

JAINA Scholarship Program: Established a need-based scholarship program to assist and encourage our students in furthering their college education and better connecting with the youth.

JAINA Education Committee led by Pravin Shah

Virtual Workshops: JAINA Education Committee has been conducting virtual Jain Workshop sessions every Wednesday and Monday.

JAINA India Foundation: Overseas Relations Committee initiated the creation of a legal JAINA entity in India as the JAINA India Foundation to support JAINA activities in India and ease the fund transferring while conducting future events/activities like Humanitarian and Educational projects and International Conferences in India.

Religious Site Clean-up in India: One more initiative by Overseas Relation Committee is working on cleaning up religious sites in India by introducing waste recycling projects. The committee hopes to start the project once the lockdown is lifted.

JAINA Senior Group Committee: In this term, the JAINA leadership team has made certain initiatives to support our members and their present life values.

Initiative for Jain Seniors aims to create an environment for Jain Seniors to help them live with dignity, security, spirituality, health services, and other challenges

Membership & Connecting With Jain Centers: JAINA is working to bring more Jains centers under the JAINA family. Our recent addition to the family is the Jain Center of Northwest Louisiana and Jain Society of Northern Virginia. Also, our Regional VPs are reaching out to Jain Center Directors and working closely to provide valuable services to respective Jain center members.

Peaceful Resolution of Religious Pratimas: In June, JAINA and various other Hindu and interfaith organizations wrote protest letters to nightclubs for a disrespectful treatment to Jain and other Hindu Pratimas. To which, LiveNation apologized and committed to rectifying the situation. JAINA created a video "Respect Religion" to create an awareness to respect every religion among the different communities . Watch the video here.

Paryushan / Das Lakshana Special Newsletters: We have published 18 Newsletters on Paryushan and Das Lakshan Parv 2019 and 2020 where we got a very good response from our members.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, JAINA organized daily virtual Paryushan 2020 lectures in Gujarati by Dr. Kumarpal Desai, in Hindi by Dr. Jitendra Shah, and in English by Dr. Bipin Doshi as well as Samvatsari Pratikramans for different time zones.

According to the Paryushan Program Analytics, 17,928 devices viewed various JAINA programs over 8 days. See our condensed report here.

During Paryushan, JAINA organized Global Bhakti to unite Jains around the world for Bhakti with singers from 10 countries. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RObh0GNVRm_YE5EQ2H0J9pSECERREBPe/view

To express Anumodna to all 2020 Paryushan & Das Lakshana Tapasvis, JAINA prepared a Tapasvi Recognition video. Please watch it here.

Launching of JAIN AVENUE magazine by JAINA India Foundation: JIF launched a monthly online magazine on August 15, 2020 with a mission statement "Voice of the Practitioners of Jain Dharma". You can read the magazine by visiting www.jainavenue.org.